Green Marketing: Factors and their Influence Green Purchase Intentions.

Introduction:During last few decades, the changing environmental conditions

around the globe along with social, economical and political changes are continuously exerting pressures on businesses to become “Green” (Cronin et al., 2011; Straughan and Roberts, 1999).

As a result many companies start offering green products by identifying it an opportunity to take a competitive advantage in the market place (Luo and Bhattacharya, 2006). Green products are those products that would cause less danger to the environment.

Whereas, green marketing involve designing, promoting, pricing and distributing products and services according to the customers’ want and need, with minimal detrimental impact on the natural environment (Grant, 2008; Jain and Kaur, 2004; Kangis, 1992; Pride and Ferrell, 2008).

Conti…Today there are approximately 5933 products which are labeled as green in USA (Wasserman, 2009). According to Natural Marketing Institute reports, 200+ billion USD$ market of Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (LOHAS) is expected to be double by 2010 and quadruple by the end of 2015 (Widger, 2007).

Furthermore the researches in developed nations indicate that consumers are more concern regarding the environment and are ready to pay even higher prices for green products comparing to traditional products (Veisten, 2007).

Therefore, understanding consumers’ green buying behaviour is important not only for academics and practitioners but marketers, and it is especially critical for environmental friendly businesses.

Similar to most developing nations, Pakistan is also confronting with many environmental problems. Like, rapidly increasing industrial pollution, contaminated water supplies by industrial and agricultural run-offs, deteriorating air quality, and water supplies contamination because of unrestricted industrial with vehicular emissions are big problems (Asif, 2005)

Therefore, In an effort to shed light on the influence of green marketing on consumer purchase intentions, the purpose of this study was to find the determinants of consumers green purchase intentions with particular focus on whether and how does perceived product price and quality of a green product influence consumer decisions and choices.

Conti…

Significance of the study: There are several researches being done on green purchasing

intentions. Among these, many research studies have identified the determinants of consumers' green purchase behavior, majority of them have been conducted in industrialized countries (Bleda and Valente, 2008; Chatterjee, 2009; Chan, 2004; Davis, 1993), but the findings often contradict each other (Elham, R & Nabsiah, A.Wahid, 2011).

For that reason, the findings may only be relevant in certain cultural, demographical and geographical context, and time. What are the main determinants of the demand for environment friendly products in developing societies? The answer to this question is particularly important since we want to change our modes of consumption and production to inflict less pressure on our natural environment.

Conceptual Model:

Perceived Environmental

knowledge

GreenPurchase Intentions

Perceived product price &

quality

GreenPurchase Behavior

Organization’s Green Image

Environmental Concern

Hypotheses: H1: There is positive relationship between OGI and consumer GPI.

H2: There is positive relationship between EC and consumer GPI.

H3: There is positive relationship between EK and consumer GPI

H4: There is positive relationship between PPP&Q and consumer GPI.

H5: The PPP&Q of the green product moderates the influence of OGI

towards the environment on consumer GPI.

H6: The PPP&Q of the green product moderates the influence of

consumer EC towards the environment on consumer GPI.

H7: The PPP&Q of the green product moderates the influence of

consumer EK towards the environment on consumer GPI.

In order to collect data from the respondents, self administered questionnaire was used as a survey instrument.

Data was collected from four universities situated in Rawalpindi and Islamabad by using the convenience sampling technique.

These universities were International Islamic University Islamabad, Muhammad Ali Jinnah University, Fast National University and Quaid-e-Azam University Islamabad.

The sample frame for this study comprised of four hundred students, hundred from each university. Twenty three respondents did not complete their question papers. Therefore, these uncompleted question papers were dropped. The final response rate was 377 respondents.

Methodology:

Conti…

To address the research question stated in the study, all measures for

the constructs were taken from previous studies, which were carried

out from marketing perspective due to their proved reliability and

validity. The questionnaire comprised of 47 items.

Sample Characteristics:

Source: Field data. Frequency Percentage

Table I.Demographicalcharacteristicsof respondents

GenderMale 210 56Female 167 44AgeBetween 20 to 24 277 73Between 25 to 30 100 27EducationBachelor 182 48Masters 136 36

Post Graduates 59 16

Correlations Analysis:H1 OGI Pearson Correlation 0.202**

Table III.Correlation analysis

(Relationship of OGI, EC, EK and PPP&Q) on GPI

Sig. (2-tailed) .000H2 EC Pearson Correlation 0.429**

Sig. (2-tailed) .000H3 EK Pearson Correlation 0.256**

Sig. (2-tailed) .011H4 PPP&Q Pearson Correlation 0.276**

Sig. (2-tailed) .000Note: **Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed)

*Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

The overall correlation results in Table# III indicate that all four independent variables are significantly and positively correlated with dependent variable. The results reveal that OGI is positively and significantly correlated with GPI of consumers in Pakistan (.202**, p< 0.01, H1 is supported). This significant positive relationship was also predicted in the literature review. The correlation matrix established the positive relationship of EC with GPI of consumers (.429**, p<0.01, H2 supported). For the third hypothesis, again significant and positive relationship found between EK and GPI of consumers (0.256**, p<0.05, H3 supported). The results also reveal that PPP&Q is positively and significantly correlated with GPI of consumers in Pakistan (0.276**, p< 0.01, H7 is supported).

Regression Analysis:Hypotheses Description (β) t- value p- value

Table IV.Regression analysis

(Effect of OGI, EC, EK and PPP&Q on GPI)

H: 1 OGI GPI 0.202 4.003 .000H: 2 EC GPI 0.429 9.191 .000H: 3 EK GPI 0.256 5.316 .000H: 4 PPP&Q GPI 0.104 5.377 .000

Note: R Square = .248; Adjusted R Square = 0.242; F = 40.977; Significance F = 0.00

The results in Table # IV indicate that 20.2% variation in a dependent variable (GPI) is caused by an independent variable, i.e. OGI. P value (i.e. p < .05, t= 4.003) indicates that results are significant and hence H1 is accepted. The results in Table # IV indicate that 42.9% variation in a dependent variable (GPI) is caused by an independent variable, i.e. EC. P value (i.e. p < .05, t= 9.191) indicates that results are significant and hence H2 is accepted. The results in Table# IV indicate that 25.6% variation in a dependent variable (GPI) is caused by an independent variable, i.e. perceived EK. P value (i.e. p < .05, t= 5.316) indicates that results are significant and hence H3 is accepted.The results in Table # IV indicate that 10.4% variation in a dependent variable (GPI) is caused by an independent variable, i.e. PPP&Q. P value (i.e. p < .05, t= 5.377) indicates that results are significant and hence H7 is accepted.

Moderation effect of PPP&Q variable :Model 1` Beta T Sig Adjusted R-square Change R-squareStep#1 OGI 0.202 4.00 .000 .038 .041Step#2 PPP&Q 0.240 4.71 .000 .083 .095Step#3 PPP&Q* OGI 1.681 4.91 .000 .143 .150Model 2Step#1 EC .429 9.19 .000 .182 .184

Step#2 PPP&Q .258 5.75 .000 .246 .250

Step#3 PPP&Q* EC 1.427 3.24 .001 .265 .271Model 3Step#1 EK .256 5.14 .000 .063 .066

Step#2 PPP&Q .253 5.23 .000 .125 .129Step#3 PPP&Q* EK 1.184 2.65 .008 .139 .145

This reveals that if businesses offer environment friendly products to respondents with competitive/ identical price and quality as compared to traditional products, along this an organization has a positive image in the eyes of a respondent, GPI will be high.This reveals that if businesses offer environment friendly products to respondents with competitive/ identical price and quality as compared to traditional products, along this respondents have high and positive concerns toward the protection of the environment, GPI will be high. This reveals that if businesses offer environment friendly products to respondents with competitive/ identical price and quality as compared to traditional products, along this respondents have high environmental knowledge, GPI will be high.

Conclusion:All the established research hypothesized relationships were confirmed,

and that consumers green purchase intentions are influenced by OGI (Ottman, 1993; Manaktola & Jauhari, 2007), EK (Manrai et al., 1997), EC (Laskova, 2007) and PPP&Q (D’Souza et al., 2006).

The last three hypotheses confirmed the moderating effect of PPP&Q variable to enhance the green purchase intentions of Pakistani consumers. Furthermore, regression analysis revealed that PPP&Q is a strong moderator of OGI.

The results from this study show that educated respondents have a high positive attitude regarding green products and are ready to buy green products more often, but as for as the product price and quality are concerned, green products must perform competitively just like the traditional products.

Hence, along with environmental aspects manufacturers should consider the prices and quality of green products to attract these consumers.

Limitations: It should be emphasized that only green purchase intentions are measured and

explained in this research study. For that reason, the measurement of (future) actual green purchase behavior might lead to different results.

Future researchers can find the green purchase behavior of the respondents by considering all those respondents who might buy at least one green product.

Secondly, due to time constraints and limited resources, the sampling frame for this study was only limited to four universities undergraduate, graduate and post graduate students as subject. Therefore, results must be used with caution.

Consequently, the results of this study were not capable of be generalizing to all populations of consumers in Pakistan. By considering this very limitation, it is recommended that future research shall utilize broader demographic profile to analyze respondents.

Furthermore, this research study examined four variables influencing GPIs of Pakistani consumers. There are yet many purchase considerations for customers to decide whether or not to buy environmentally friendly products.